New Delhi, July 18
Excessively playing video games can generate a greater risk of obesity, aggressive and violent behaviour in children and teenagers, finds a new survey.

The recent survey by Assocham reveals that over 82 per cent of teenagers spend an average of 14-16 hours per week playing games on computer, web portal or consoles and about 7 per cent of children surveyed qualified as being pathological video gamers (over 20 hours per week).

Gaming is taking away time that could be spend on activities that have educational benefits. Compulsive gamers display signs of diminished empathy, increased aggression and conflicts at home, school and work. It could also create problems and lead to poor social skills.

Rising addiction to video games include easy availability of resources and absence of quality parental care reveals the survey conducted under Assocham's Social Development Foundation (SDF).

Over 2,000 teenagers and 1,000 parents were interviewed by Assocham-SDF during April 2011 to June 2011 in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Patna, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Jaipur.

The sample included almost an equal number of males and females in the age group of 8-18 years.

About 84 per cent (ages 8 to 18) of children said they played violent games when they were alone than with their parents. About 76 per cent prefer to play action games and 45 per cent of gamers, who shows signs similar to addiction, are also more likely to have a video game system in their bedroom.

A total of 1,200 teens (76 per cent) played video games.

About 20 per cent of the gamers were girls and female gamers were found to spend an average of 30 minutes playing on the weekdays and one hour playing on the weekends. Male gamers spend an average of 50 minutes playing on the weekdays and 2-3 hours playing on the weekends.

Gamers who are going to school account for 72 per cent and college students at 28 per cent.